At every test-optional school we visited, from NESCAC and beyond – admissions said something along the lines of, “If your test scores are not consistent with the performance indicated throughout the rest of your admissions portfolio, then don’t submit them.”
Some test optional schools do not give merit without test scores, others do. As best I recall, Dickinson only gives its lowest tier merit award to test optional admits while St Lawrence gives no merit to test optional. Denison gives at least up to 1/2 tuition for test optional admits, as do Earlham, Beloit, Lawrence. Conn Coll only started giving merit after my test-optional kid went through admissions, so we don’t experience with Conn Coll.
Mount Holyoke advised to only submit scores if they enhance your application. However, they also said that they request scores for every student who enrolls, and they were surprised that some students didn’t submit perfectly acceptable scores. So I suspect that “If your test scores are not consistent with the performance indicated throughout the rest of your admissions portfolio, then don’t submit them” is more reflective of their actual expectation.
Thank you all for your replies. My worry is that by not submitting scores you kind of send a message that your scores aren’t that good. Why else wouldn’t you submit them?
@cptofthehouse I fascinated by your strategy/results. So one of your kids did not submit test scores to colleges that require testing for domestic students (Fordham and NEU, Penn State and perhaps others) and was still accepted? Wow. I figured those apps would be considered incomplete and thrown into the auto reject pile.
Fwiw, an admission officer at a prominent Boston institution told me to drop 10% to 15% from the SAT score of any test optional school to get a realistic assessment of the actual aggregate scores of the students enrolled there. That sounds about right
As a case example, test-optional Bowdoin lost about 55 points (out of 1600) in its apparent SAT mean when it began requiring and reporting scores for all attending students. Though significant, this wouldn’t seem to comport with the suggested figures above.
@allyphoe I read once a book written by two college counselors and they suggested not to send scores to TO schools unless the scores are above their 75%. I was very surprised. So I assume if that is in print they are other counselors with the same idea? Maybe that’s why some kids do not send perfectly acceptable scores ? And I read it here on CC a kid accepted to Bowdoin did not submit a 1500 something! I have no idea what kind of strategies people have.
OP I have many friends accepted to TO (without sending scores) but not the schools you mention. A problem with those three schools is that they have very small acceptance rates and routinely reject kids with high scores. So it is kind of hard to say “why” exactly a student was rejected.
I am wondering the same for a 30 ACT for test optional schools such as Bates, Trinity, Pitzer, Dickinson. GC hesitated and then said she’d recommend sending. That’s what we’re planning to do at this point, but interested whether people here feel there’s reason not to send.
Looking at your daughter’s scores (in bold) in the context of the middle ranges for Bowdoin and Bates from their most recent Common Data Sets*, you can see where they fall:
Bowdoin
EBRW: 650-740-740
Math: 650-670-770
Bates
EBRW: 640-720-740
Math: 650-670-740
If she doesn’t submit her scores, it would be reasonable for these colleges to infer they are much lower than they actually are.
*Note that these schools manifest different reporting standards.
Generally a student should send the score if it’s above the median and not send if it’s below the 25%ile. Between 25%ile and median it’s less clear, and one way to decide would be based on the overall strength of the rest of the app.
For Bates, I would submit the scores…even though math is below the median it’s above the 25%ile, and her 740 EBRW is above the 75%ile, per the 2018/19 CDS.
For Bowdoin, it’s not as clear because they require all matriculating students to submit an ACT or SAT, so the CDS reflects at least one score for all students…but we don’t know which of those matriculants submitted scores on their apps and which didn’t. I haven’t seen 25%-75% scores for all accepted students, but if that is out there that’s what you need. Based on Bowdoin’s 2018/19 CDS I think it’s a toss-up to submit or not and you have to look at the entirety of your D’s app to make that decision. What does her GC think?
@chardonMN You have to do the same analysis for the schools on your kid’s list. Pay attention to the english and math subscores, as well as the composite.
Yes, submit. Girls will often have lower math scores, boys higher. It is not an unfamiliar pattern and the value of a 740 EBRW in my opinion is worth more than the detriment from a 670 SATM, especially for a female.
I would research what the scores for accepted students who submitted are. Often that can be found in that stats for incoming students in the spring admissions announcement or in the school’s section on their test optional policy. Here’s one for Bates’ class of 2022 showing middle 50th percentiles as Reading 670-730, Math 700-760, and ACT 30-33: https://www.bates.edu/admission/optional-testing/
The scores reported in the Common Data Set can look artificially low because they include scores for kids who didn’t submit.
My feeling is that it’s worth it to submit scores that fall above the 25th percentile but that’s really dependent on other circumstances. For instance, if you’re coming from a weak school system where a quarter of the class has a 4.0 you might want to submit borderline scores to establish your bona fides, but if you’re coming from a place where high grades are rare but everyone does extensive test prep you might want to let your grades speak for you and not submit scores.
Another complication is that some schools report the scores of accepted applicants who submitted scores as opposed to matriculants who submitted. The former can be higher than the latter because some kids with scores in the higher ranges will accept offers from schools higher up the food chain. The stats from before or just after admissions results have been released can contain scores for applicants, while scores reported in the late summer or fall for incoming students tend to report the scores for matriculants.
Too late to edit my last post, but I also found the stats for Bates’s class of 2023
Very interesting thread. My daughter looks very similar to yours, @Jon234 (680M/780V) and I asked about lopsided scores a while back. She is looking at a few NESCAC TO schools and a few other very selective LACs. She is submitting scores at all of them. I wonder about the math being at the low end of the 25th dragging her down at schools where she has to submit but I have to hope that the 780 will give some boost, especially since she isn’t looking at anything STEM related. Ironically, we have asked AOs about submitting AP scores if we think they might help and they all have said to go ahead, even at the TO schools.
I’m still on the fence about Bowdoin. What math will she complete by the end of high school? Math rigor (honors/AP) and grades? Any math AP test scores yet?
She is currently doing AP Calc AB, the only AP math class the school offers.
She has done Algebra 1 & 2, Geometry and Pre Calc at honors level, the highest level the school offered. All A’s.
Her course rigor is the hardest class the school offered in every subject.
She doubled up on math classes in her second year to get herself into the AP track.
I know she is not looking to go into anything in the science or math field but how to convey that in an application, especially one such as Bates that relies on the Common App alone?
GC now says she wouldn’t send a 30 to Bates. It’s so hard to imagine that test optional really means that doesn’t hurt his chances, but what do I know!